No Death By Running

I did run number two of week one of couch-to-5k earlier today. It’s eight intervals of the 60 seconds run and 90 seconds walk; I couldn’t remember last running-related post. This time I managed all the intervals. I think the trouble last time was that I was running too hard, and my body’s not used to it. I went a little gentler today, and managed to complete the run without feeling like I might die afterwards. I feel so pleased with myself. I have one more set of the 60/90 intervals, which I will probably do on Sunday, then I’m going to take on week two.
I actually really enjoyed the run today too. It’s lovely to be outside and have the feeling of doing something positive for myself. There’s a quite a pretty cycle path through trees and by the river about a five minute walk from my house, which is ideal running territory. Nice, flat paths, away from the road and I have something pretty to look at to distract me.

I’m heading home for easter next weekend, which I’m quite looking forward to. I haven’t seen my mum for so long, as we both usually work weekends now, so I’m looking forward to some mum-time. It’ll be nice to see some old friends too. I’m hoping the weather will hold out so I can keep some running motivation up when I don’t have quite such an ideal running route to get me out the door.

Anyone got anything exciting planned for their Easter break?

30 Day Challenge: Day Two

List five of your favourite blogs and why they’re your favourites.

This was a tricky one. Narrowing it down was tough. These are in no particular order; they’re just the ladies (and gentleman) who have me smiling whenever I see there’s an update.

WishWishWish
Carrie has been on my favourite bloggers as soon as I discovered her. She can usually be found in cute little 60s dresses, rocking a Mulberry that I am very jealous of. I love her mix of vintage and vintage-inspired clothing, and the beautiful photographs and videos she posts. I love her blog because Carrie comes across on it so wonderfully. She’s witty and down-to-earth and strikes me very much as the sort of girl I’d like to be friends with.

Fashion Pearls of Wisdom
Pearl was a blogger I found a little later. Intially, I was attracted to her blog by her remarkable collection of shoes and Vivienne Westwood. Now, while I still love those things, I have come to appreciate her way with words more than her pictures of pretties. Pearl is not shy of voicing her opinions, and her posts are always interesting and often informative about aspects of fashion I didn’t know about before. Plus, she has a good line in anecdotes too.

The Sartorialist
What can I say about this blog? When I first began to find a fledging interest in fashion (I mean a real interest, rather than just liking shopping), Scott’s blog was one of the very first I stumbled across. It was the first I returned to over and over again to gaze at the beautiful photographs. The style he chooses to showcase is often inspiring, but no matter whether I like the look captured or not, his portraits are always works of art. The Sartorialist is an unusual member of my blog-roll, as I follow very few picture heavy blogs. I prefer words with my pictures of nice clothes. But with this blog? The words aren’t needed.

The Style Crusader
Jen is another blogger who I follow because she strikes me as someone I could be friends with. Funny and stylish, her posts are always a pleasure to read. I envy her wardrobe so much.

Gem Fatale's Style Blog
Gem’s style is similar to my own, I think. We like stripes and polka dots, ‘geek’ fashion, rocker twists like leather jackets…
I don’t just want to be Gem’s friend, I kind of want to be Gem. She’s gorgeous and puts together such fun looks. She’s funny, and her Tuesday Tips feature is one of my favourite things to read.

Please do visit all these great blogs; you won’t be disappointed. Just click on the names to be linked through. All photos belong to the blogger in question, and have been borrowed from their respective blogs, and cropped to fit in with this post. If you are one of these bloggers and you don’t want your photo here, please let me know.

Running Out

A couple of days ago, I mentioned that I was setting myself some life challenges. Some of them are fairly basic things like keeping more on top of bedroom tidying, a better work schedule for my dissertation, and I’m carrying on with my better eating efforts. I’m certainly not dieting; I don’t want to lose any weight. It’s purely health based. I have a fast metabolism, but that won’t last forever, and at some point my unhealthy lifestyle will catch up with me. If I make the change now, hopefully that won’t happen. I’ve been making a more concentrated effort to make better choices with my food and it’s going quite well.

I’ve also been thinking about my fitness. At school, I was pretty active. I was on the netball team and swam while at primary school. At high school, I attended an after-school dance club, had dance lessons at my local dance school, played on the hockey team and played the odd bit of tennis. I never thought of myself as ‘sporty’, I was just doing fun stuff with friends. At college, I cut down to just dancing, and now I’m at uni, I don’t do anything besides walk everywhere.
I can feel a difference. My energy levels are worse, and I definitely feel unfit now. I figured it’s time I did something about that.
So I’ve decided to have a go at the Couch-to-5k running programme. The idea is to gradually build up your running abilities using interval running to improve fitness. I’m using the podcasts by Robert Ullrey. I used to run occasionally back when I was in better shape, but I’ve never run properly before, so I thought this was a good way to make me take it seriously, not jog along for 20 seconds before slowing to a walk again.

I did the first run yesterday. The idea is to run for 60 seconds, then walk for 90, over a block of intervals (I’ve now forgotten how many sets of those it is). Sounds easy, right? Oh god, no. 60 seconds feels like a long-time if you’re not used to running. Or maybe I am just horrfiyingly unfit. Actually I am dreadfully unfit. I felt pretty good to start with, but hit a wall about half way through. I pushed through, but had to skip the last couple of intervals as I felt like I might throw up. The endorphins afterwards made it worth it though, and I felt better all day. Today’s a rest day, but I’ll probably run again tomorrow, and this time, I’ll complete the full set of runs.

I think part of my problem with running is related to my back. I have trouble with it after a dance injury, and it’s in my lower back that I’m feeling the effects of my run today. Some searching around running forums tells me this is probably because I lack in core strength. My back and stomach muscles aren’t strong enough to support my spine properly. This makes sense. Running will help, but I’m planning on using my rest days to do gentle exercise like swimming and taking up pilates again to improve my core strength and help my back.

Wish me luck!

Anyone else done Couch-to-5k?

Let Them Eat Cake

I had an entirely different post planned for today, but then I had a bit of a fashion-world jolt. These photos are from The Sartorialist, posted earlier today. They appeared in my blog feed, and I admired them. Scott’s photos are always beautiful, and these are no exception. I admired the casual style of the subject (she is a blogger, but I don’t know who. Can anyone link me? I’d love to see more of her) and her killer shoes. I saved the images to my inspiration folder,for next time I decide that jeans are boring.

And then I scrolled down to read what Scott had to say and got a bit of a shock.Words like ‘bigger’ and ‘curvier’ are used. Her legs are ‘sturdy but beautiful’. I scrolled back up and looked at the pictures again. I don’t get it. I don’t see a bigger girl. I see a slim, healthy woman who is in charge of her style.
I don’t mean to attack The Sartorialist in anyway. I adore his blog, and was one of the very first I started following. But this gave me a horrible reminder that the fashion world is not always the land of candy and flowers that blog-reading would have me believe.

This was just one example of the bizarre mind-set so rife now that smaller is better, and the smaller you can go, the better you’ll look. It’s not true. Healthy is better, whatever that is for you. It also disturbs me when opinions about what size or shape you should be get thrown around casually. It can be so damaging. I think all women are guilty of being too hard on their own bodies at least some of the time, and I’m sure that if we were really honest, we’d admit we’re a little hard on other women’s bodies too, or have been at least once. We don’t need any encouraging from the fashion-set to make us attack ourselves.

I don’t really know what I’m trying to say with this post. It was an unpleasant surprise, and I suppose I wanted to express my distaste for commenting on someone else’s figure (unless it’s for compliments).

What do you think? Just one of those things, or the unpleasant after-taste to fashion? Is this girl big?

30 Day Challenge: Day One

It definitely feels more spring-like now, especially with the official start of spring, and the clocks going forward to give us more light in the evenings.
Spring encourages new beginnings, I think, and so I’ve decided to set myself some challenges. Some are life based, and I’ll be blogging about those in the next few days. Others are purely blog based.

I thought I’d try a 30 day blog challenge, in the hopes of generating some interesting posts and to really force me to blog on a consistent basis. I won’t be posting daily, but every day that I can blog. Not all days are conducive to proper blogging!

I searched around for some different challenges, and have decided to combine a couple of different ones to give me the best array of topics.
So, without further ado:

Day One: Your Favourite Movie

This is weirdly difficult. I really struggled deciding what to pick. I’m a big fan of the original Star Wars trilogy.I’m a little too in love with Disney classics, especially Aladdin.I really love Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, High Fidelity and Breakfast at Tiffany’s. I could easily have written about any of those films.

However,eventually, I chose True Romance. I know that saying, “I love Quentin Tarantino” is very hipster and can be seen as a bit posey, but I really do love his films.

True Romance is Tarantino’s script, which he sold to fund Reservoir Dogs.
In it,Clarence marries ‘call-girl’ Alabama and decides to free his new bride of her pimp. Whilst there, he accidentally steals a suitcase full of cocaine, meaning to take Alabama’s possessions. Naturally, they decide to go to Hollywood to try sell the coke.

I love this film because it’s strangely charming for a film about cocaine and hookers. It’s beautifully shot, the characters are fantastic and the plot keeps you hooked until the end.
I absolutely love Alabama. She’s wonderfully adorable, in this naive way, and yet achingly cool at the same time. Throughout most of the film, she is quite ‘fluffy’ and silly, making jokes and trotting about in a lot of leopard print. She’s likeable that way, but then there are moments when she reveals that she is made of tougher stuff than it first appears. And then,you love her.

Here’s a clip of one of my favourite moments in the film.

You’re so cool

Sand in my Shoes

It’s so easy to forget about places on our doorsteps. Aberystwyth itself is a great town, and there’s more to do around here than I remember sometimes.

Yesterday, one of my close friends from home arrived for a visit. We had a night out, which was great fun, but today, we rounded up MrKiss, packed up some sandwiches, and drove over to the nature reserve at Ynyslas.

Ynyslas is beautiful. It’s made up mostly of these amazing rolling sand-dunes, and has the best beach. The sand is crazy soft to the touch, which is great after the pebbly stuff we have in Aber.
We walked one of the board-walk trails to the main beach and found ourselves  a gap in the dunes to settle in out of the wind.It’s been sunny today, but there’s still some pretty chilly breezes going on.
We ended up having a really fun day; soaking up some sun, watching the sea, and attempting to build burrows in the sand. I’m not sure why. It began with simple digging, and got silly. MrKiss seemed to get very into it, and made a pretty giant hole in the sand. Not quite person sized, but pretty massive. I can just imagine him as some sort of burrowing creature; it would suit him very nicely.

The photo above is of the dunes. It’s not taken by me, as I forgot my camera. Hover over the image for source details.

It was escaping the Aber bubble for an afternoon and to remind myself of the great places so nearby. We used to visit Ynyslas when I was a kid, so it was lovely to go back.
Anyone else forgot what’s around them, and then have great reminders like this?

Lazing on a Sunny Afternoon

• Shirt from Next
• Shorts via Ebay
• Shoes from New Look

Hello sunshine. The weather here has been gorgeous today. I started out wearing this outfit with purple tights but after walking over to MrKiss’s, I decided it was definitely warm enough to go without. BARE LEGS. For the first time this year. Exciting stuff. I hate the cold.
I never used to wear shorts like this, preferring a longer cut, but I’ve been braver lately. Although having your legs out for the first time in a while always feels funny. I would like  a nice tan, but sadly, that’s not going to happen. I’m so fair-skinned, I just burn rather than tan. I managed the teeniest amount of colour on holiday in Majorca last year, right at the end of the week, but that’s about it. It’s a little depressing.

This was worn to lunch with MrKiss. He lives right be a pub with a sea-front patio. We figured it’d be packed, but thought we’d walk that way just in case and then choose somewhere else when we found it full. Much to our surprise, there were several tables so we blagged one and relaxed in the sun with a cheeky drink and ciabattas.

My cold seems to be retreating, which makes me very happy. I’m terrible at being ill, a real complainer, so I’m sure MrKiss is glad too.

Is it sunny where you are?

An Update from KissHQ

I’m a terrible blogger. I’m sorry. It’s been over a week since my last post. I’ve been so busy, and the week has just shot by. I’ve been busy with dissertation and Wetherspoons and I’ve not been feeling very chirpy. And now I have a cold. So please excuse my absence.

I had a meeting with my dissertation tutor yesterday, which went very well. I’m writing a fantasy piece for my writing project, about shadows. So far, the story has just been pouring out of me, and I’m sitting comfortably at about 4500 words, which is very nice, as I have until May to finish. My tutor was very positive about what I have so far, but gave me some stuff to work on, so I think it’s all going rather well.

I’ve got an absolutely stinking cold now, caught from work. It’s awful when someone comes in ill; you just know you’re going to get it as well. I’ve spent the last week seeing some of the others get ill, one by one, and now it is my turn. I feel very thick-headed and sinusy, and I can’t breathe much, and my throat hurts. I’m shattered. I feel very sorry for myself. I’ve been downing berocca and hot squash with honey, and going through throat sweets like they’re going out of style. Olbas oil is my friend right now too, although I don’t think MrKiss is really enjoying me putting it all over the pillows so I can breathe at night. He insists it smells like insect repellent.

The scaffolding is finally down here at KissHQ, which I hope means we’ve finally seen the last of the builders. Although there is still a massive hole behind the skirting board in the hall, and the front door needs a coat of paint after they’ve trailed the wall paint all over it, so maybe not. I saw the woman who deals with us for our letting agent out walking her dog last night, and I must say the temptation to run after her and demand to know what’s going on was quite overwhelming. She is very nice, but our agent is dreadful at keeping us informed about what’s going on, or ever getting back to us when we phone or call into the office. I did resist though, and left her in peace.

I had a mega blitz of my bedroom yesterday as it had got really messy. It’s lovely having a tidy room again. Today, I’m going to give it a good hoover, and then sort out my jewellery onto racks, finally. Maybe. Or maybe I’ll lie in bed snuffling with this damn cold.

I promise to be a good blogger this week and actually post. When I’m not the lergy queen I’ll get some outfit shots done, if nothing else. In the mean time, here is a picture of an amazing swimsuit. I have no idea where this from (if it’s yours, let me know and I’ll credit). It showed up on my tumblr and I fell in love with it.

Sweet Charity

In last night’s post I mentioned the horrible disaster that’s hit Japan. I’m guessing by now everyone knows what’s happened. I was going to post up of the images of the wreckage to go with the post, but after looking at them…I can’t. We’re all so desensitized to such images from the media, but I can’t begin to think that’s acceptable. It ought to be shocking. Prettying up the post with pictures seemed disrespectful.

What’s aggravating me is Facebook. I got invited to some sort of group ‘Support Japan with a Click’ or something like that. The info asked me to click ‘attending’ to the event and then post ‘we need peace’ on the event’s wall. First off; peace? Well, yes, I agree, we do need it, but what does peace have to do with an earthquake and tsunami? This was a natural disaster. Japan doesn’t need peace, it needs medical supplies, food, help rebuilding it’s homes…

There’s a load of groups like this popping up all over facebook. Clicking ‘join’, ‘like’ or ‘I’m attending’ does not help anyone.
If you want to actually help, the Red Cross has set up a direct appeal. You can donate as much or as little as you like here.
I made a donation this morning. It was a fairly piddling amount, I’ll admit, but on a student budget, I have to keep an eye on my outgoings. And every little helps. I feel better for having actually done something that will actually help, not just clicked a button on facebook.

Facebook seems to make people think very strangely about charity and causes. Sometimes, when the aim is making people think about a cause, facebook can be a great tool for fun gimmicks, like the cartoon character profile pictures, or the bra colour statuses of a few months back. Nothing much is achieved but it can put a cause to the forefront of people’s minds. But people seem to confuse this with actually helping. Changing your status or your picture or joining groups doesn’t give any real support. It just makes you feel better and like you’re showing your friends what a caring person you are. Volunteering and donating really does something. And then you can shout about it all over facebook as much as you like.

Personally, I find the sheer number of charities kind of overwhelming. How on earth am I supposed to decide where my money goes? They’re all such good causes.
I hate ‘charity mugging’. You know, you’re walking through town and can’t get five feet without someone trying to get you to sign up to one charity or another. I hate that. Just let me walk to work in peace, thanks. I do give to charity, but when I’ve thought about where I want to give to, and that I can definitely afford to part with a little extra cash. I’ve never given anything to anyone who tried to force me into a subscription donation. I’ll chuck loose change into charity buckets quite happily, but generally, I’d like to make up my own mind.

I do have a few charities of choice. I always try and find some spare money for big causes like the Japan ‘quake. Usually, it’s not much, but I figure I can sacrifice a couple of drinks on my next night out in order to give something. I try and donate to the big boys like Children in Need and Comic Relief when they come around.
When I buy on Ebay, I always tick the button to donate a little extra to whatever the charity is that time. When I sell things on Ebay, I often choose to donate a portion of what I earn to a charity, usually the RNLI, Diabetes UK or a cancer charity of some sort. I spend a small fortune in my local Oxfam bookshop.
For me, it’s always small donations. It doesn’t seem like much but if lots of people give small amounts, it soon adds up.

Basically, forget ‘click to support’. Find a real way of helping, however small. And please do visit the Red Cross site. Japan needs so much help right now.

Apologies for the high quota of ‘cause’ posts this week. Everything’s happened in a lump! I promise I’ll be back to the light-hearted stuff next week.

Excuse me while I complain about nothing…

I am most decidedly not at my best at the moment. I seem to be very, very tired all the time, although I’m actually sleeping just fine. I’m worried I might be about to have some sort of spectacular cold. I do get tired and run-down like this sometimes.
My hours at Wetherspoons seem to be taking it out of me too. I work a couple more shifts than I used to, and I seem to have got permanently got stuck with the Saturday 12pm til 10pm shift. Which, by the way, is hell. Exhausting, and I get to deal with the horrid children shrieking around the place during the day, and then the very special sort of imbecile Saturday night brings in. Ugh.
I’m also having a bad case of The Fear about leaving university. I have nothing lined up to do afterwards. I wanted to stay and do a masters, but the money just isn’t there. Job hunting is tough work when no-one wants to hire anyone. I am terrified at getting stuck having to move back home on a more permanent basis than initially planned, and transfer back to my home-town Seventh Circle of Hell Wetherspoons, which I hated with a passion when I worked there over summer. I like Aberystwyth. I like the friends I have here. What happens to all that when I go? I dislike all this not knowing business.
Parts of this year have been stressful in KissHQ, and I think some of that is lingering. I’ve also had a couple of unpleasant shocks of people turning out to be not quite who I thought they were. That’s never nice.
All in all, this does not bode well for my contentedness levels.

On the up-side, I was released from work an hour early tonight, Wales won the Rugby today and a massive pile of books awaiting reading. So all is not lost.

I am too prone to sweating the small stuff or things I can do nothing about. Sometimes I need reminding of how very easy I have it.
The news today has been a bit of a kick on that front. Think you have it bad because KissHQ is still scaffolding central? How about this earthquake and tsunami? Sort of makes you think shutting up about your own small worries would be a good plan.

Anyway, to counteract the mopetastic nature of this post, here’s something funny I just rediscovered. I’d forgotten how much I love communitychannel.

Playing House

I don’t know what’s come over me lately. I’ve suddenly got obsessed with interior design. My mum always watched all the old decorating and house-hunting shows (Changing Rooms and the House Doctor, anyone?) and still likes the odd bit of Location, Location, Location. She claims this is because she likes nosing at other people’s houses.
I also like the odd nosy, I’ll confess. I very much enjoyed viewing flats when Mum and I moved for this exact reason.

Lately, I’ve started following nearly as many home and design blogs as I do style ones. I can’t enough at gawping at beautiful living-rooms, sleek kitchens, cosy bedrooms…and I think it’s not only being nosy. Although I do still enjoy that.
I don’t know if it’s because I’ll be graduating soon, or if I’m just starting think like a ‘grown-up’ at least occasionally, but I have houses and homes on the brain at the moment. There are some beautiful houses in the area I live. I have a favourite picked out and everything. It’s sort of old-school gothicky looking, with beautiful wrought iron twirly bits and balconies and a massive sun-room type attachment on the side. I like it because it has such character and is slightly odd. I’ve always enjoyed houses with split levels and half staircases, and I get the impression this house is like that. Somewhat hap-hazard in a fantastic way.
MrKiss also loves this house, and pointed it out to me as his favourite without knowing I already loved it. I’m undecided if this fact is sweet and quite nice, or just vaguely terrifying.

My inspiration folder is getting quite full of images I love of houses I’d like to live in. I thought I’d share some of the elements I’m sure will find their way into whatever and wherever my future home is.

 

All images are from Apartment Therapy. So, it seems I love pops of bright, unexpected colour, rustic style for bedrooms (it just looks so cosy), plush fabrics and trinkets galore. And I want a Victorian house. Actually, I’d love a Victorian house. The inside of this one has been really modernised, and is incredibly beautiful, but I don’t think I could ever take out period features from a place this. I love the stained glass, wood floors, ceramic tile floors in gorgeous patterns, fireplaces…I’d never be able to part with those if I owned a Victorian era property.

What’s your dream house like?

Rock the Red Pump

Today is National Women & Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. In order to raise awareness of the day, the Red Pump Project was created. The aim is to get people talking about these illnesses, through blogging. The project was founded in 2009, when a call was put out to bloggers to rock their red pumps for this day. The aim this year is to get 500 bloggers to participate.

I’m a lover of the red pump at the best of times, but when it’s for a good cause? Even better.

• Hat from fancy dress shop
• Cardigan from New Look
• Dress from Boohoo
• Necklace from Dorothy Perkins
• Tights from fancy dress shop
• Red pumps from Ebay (not sure of original make)

Here’s me rocking my red pumps for fancy dress. Please excuse the god awful quality of the second picture. It looked fine on my camera display and only turned fuzzy when I uploaded it. I hate when that happens. It’s the only shot I have of the full dress.
This was worn out for the birthday of the lovely Laura, whose fancy dress theme was travel. I’m a sailor, if you couldn’t tell.
I tried to give my costume a bit of a vintage pin-up-esque twist, with the pearls, red nails and red lips. And of course, these babies. Back-seamed tights! Which, I discovered, are insanely fiddly to put on. Getting the seam to actually sit in the middle of your leg and be vaguely straight is quite tricky. But anyway, aren’t these great? Sadly, they did not survive the night, but there cheapo from a fancy dress shop, so I wasn’t expecting anything great, and I do have some proper ones on the way from trusty old Marks and Spencers.

It was a pretty good night, although we did lose everyone towards the end. It’s lovely to have Laura back for a little bit; she’s been off studying abroad and leading a glamorous life in Paris, the lucky minx.

KissHQ has been pretty quiet recently. Aber is still nice and sunny and it’s almost warm today! We managed a fire on the beach a few nights ago, and are hoping to be able to have our first beach barbeque of the year tomorrow, if the weather’s half decent. Aber is such a strange little bubble and it can very claustrophobic at times being stuck here where there isn’t much to do, but when the weather starts being like this, it’s really wonderful, and I remember exactly why I love it here so much. I’ll be very sad to leave in a few months time.

Anyone else feel like this about their university towns?

International Women’s Day/Feminist Coming Out Day

March 8th 2011 is both International Women’s Day and Feminist Coming Out Day. Originally, for today, I was planning on posting about the Planned Parenthood fiasco going on in America. The women in America are having their rights threatened, and there are some amazing photographs online of protestors (some of whom are somewhat unexpected). I probably still will post something about it soon, even if only a selection of amazing placards.

I came across Feminist Coming Out Day on a couple of blogs and loved the idea of the diversity of the feminist portrait. The point is, a feminist doesn’t look like anything. Any woman anywhere can (and should) be a feminist.
So here’s mine. I chose this photograph for it, even though my workload has pretty much stopped me cheerleading this year. I chose it because I feel it makes for a nice ‘irony’. Cheerleading is one of those things that women judge other women for. I’m always told I don’t ‘seem like a cheerleader’, whatever that means. We are expected to be cheap, easy and bitchy. I’ll admit, I do know cheerleaders like this, but most of them? Not so much. This kind of sweeping generalisation about what you do and what it makes you is exactly what today is about.

I am a feminist because I believe that all people are created equal. I believe in choice. A woman can be a house-wife, an astronaut, a police officer, a teacher, a CEO…a woman can be whatever the hell she likes, as long as she has chosen it for herself.
I am a feminist because there is a still a pay gap.
I am a feminist because I hate rape culture. Women are not for sexual gratification. Rape convictions are so low in this country. A woman is not at fault for rape, ever, regardless of her choice of dress, or how intoxicated she is. No means no.
I am a feminist because in parts of the world, corrective rapes are carried out on gay women. In some places, female genital mutilation happens. Honour killings. Forced prostitution. Sex slavery. These things are real. We are very blessed in Western society and these things seem very distant to most of us, but somewhere, there is a woman coping with one of these.
I am a feminist because I hate slut-shaming. I hate double standards about woman embracing their sexuality.
I am a feminist for these and a hundred other reasons. I’m a feminist because I watch the news, and I read the papers and I hear stories from women around the world and what happens to us.

If you aren’t angry, you’re not paying attention.   

Photo Round-Up

1. I own so many band t-shirts (admittedly, they’re mostly Muse shirts). I love this one though. The colours and print are great, plus I get the added fun of people not expecting me to be a RATM fan.
2. I’ve been keeping a closer eye on my budget the last couple of weeks, so instead of treating myself to clothes when I felt rubbish earlier in the week, I went for a much cheaper pick-me-up in the form of these little beauties. And yes, I may have eaten them all in a single afternoon.
3. The daffodils are just starting to come up in Aber, and the supermarkets are full of them. I couldn’t resist. And just to prove what a classy girl I am, that’s a stein they’re sitting in, not a vase. Oh yes.
4. I’ve been wearing this a lot this week. It’s a simple false (I think) pearl on a thin gold chain that belonged to my gran.
5. Sunny enough to justify digging out my Aviators? Hooray!
6. The reason behind any blogging lack. I’ve been in work a lot this week. Great for my bank balance, bad for my sanity. I actually got excited by the new coffee machine this week. I’m worried.

This week has shot by before I had time to catch up with it. I don’t seem to have done anything, but the time’s all gone.
I do have one story from KissHQ this week though. It seems more of the ladies I know in my ‘real-life’ are reading than I realised. MrKiss had a night out without me a few nights ago, while I was working. He arrived at KissHQ a few hours later, and announced with some distress, “They kept calling me MrKiss and I don’t know why!”
Oops. MrKiss knows I blog, obviously, and he knows some of our friends read. He, however, does not read. I think this new nickname baffled him somewhat. Eventually, once he’d realised I did know the reason for it, I explained. I don’t think I’m quite forgiven for giving him such an un-macho alter-ego. Sorry, MrKiss. It’s too late to change it now. Right?

Chocolate Cream

• Cardigan from Boohoo
• Camisole top from ASOS
• Shorts via Ebay
• Tights (which are browner in real-life) from Dorothy Perkins
• Socks from New Look
• Boots of wonder from local boutique

I had a little play with the photo editing stuff over at Picnik for this shot. I’m pleasantly surprised. With the dodgy light conditions in my room, decent pictures are tricky, but I think this looks pretty good. Plus I get to have those pretty 1960s effects with the rounded corners that the cool bloggers are using these days.

I’m going out for a lecture in a few minutes, to discuss some Sherlock Holmes ‘tribute’ type stories. I’m not sure what the proper word for it is; Sherlock, written by someone else, with a twist. Interesting books, so the lecture should be good.

KissHQ is pretty quiet at the moment. Exam results came out today for Aber students, but as I had no exams, that kind of passed me by. My over-all mark for last semester was better than I was expecting though (just missed a first in one module, which was great), and the uni have given us a ‘cascade calculator’ which fathoms through all the crazy maths they do to work out your final mark. Looks as though, unless everything goes horribly wrong, my degree is not as horribly doomed as my inner fear was beginning to convince me it was. I think a first will take a miracle, but a 2:1 is nice and achievable, which will suit me just fine. Hooray!

Walk the Line

Imagine my delight when I saw blue skies like this out of the window this morning. The sun has finally started to feel like it’s got some heat to it, which is lovely! MrKiss and I both decided we needed to get outdoors before this sunny spell vanishes.

Aberystwyth has a pretty standard beach, but at the North end, right by where MrKiss lives, you can climb over a bit of sea-wall and find yourself in this beautiful, deserted stretch of beach, covered in layers of rock. Most of the beach between here and the next town is much like the picture above; very rocky, with the stones worn into strange shapes from the sea.

We packed up some sandwiches and set off for an explore. It really is gorgeous. We picked our way among the rocks (with only slip into a rock pool from me. Result.) as far as the next town, which is mostly caravan parks.
From there, we joined the cliff path and walked to the causeway at Wallog. The causeway is a great strip of rubble that stretches out into the sea for a pretty impressive distance.
Local legend says that the causeway used to reach a village that has now been swallowed by the sea.
Sadly, it seems the truth is less eerie. The causeway is probably caused by a massive glacier that used to be on the site. I don’t pretend to understand these things, but MrKiss is quite knowledgeable on such subjects and tells me that the cliffs here and the way the causeway is lined up tell geologists and those who know that there was probably a glacier here at some point. When it melted, it dumped all the rubble it was carrying down, and it’s compacted down into the causeway we have now.

I love getting out of the main town off the beaten track a bit here. Aber is wonderful, but such a bubble. I forget what pretty, interesting sites there are so close by.

I’ve been slack on the ‘fashion’ side of this little blog lately; I’m sorry. Days like this are lovely, but are spent in fleeces and trainers. Not very photo-worthy! I promise some more variety soon. 

The Sun Has Got His Hat On

Sun! And it’s warm and everything! I walked to the supermarket today without a coat, which makes me immensely happy. Winter weather does not suit me. I hate the short days and the cold. I’m longing for long, warm evenings and being to have the window open all day with a  breeze coming in. Plus, I want to lounge on the beach with a book. And have the ice-cream places along the prom here open again.

Here’s my ‘it’s sunny’ listening. I love the Manics, and this song just sounds like it should to be listened to in the sun. Which I did. So here you go.

I’m heading to work for the evening soon (and hoping everyone will have picked pubs with nice beer gardens in response to the sun, so we’ll be quiet). I was meant to be going over to MrKiss’s flat after work, but I’m debating doing otherwise now. I heard earlier from his flatmate that a leak in another flat took out all the water in the entire building. His halls are not small, so that’s a pretty big thing. Nobody had any water at all for a bit, apparently. It eventually came back (mostly, I think), but with either yellow, or non-existent hot water. Not sure I fancy that, really…